Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Home Again

One of the things about being back in NY is visiting places we use to go and live. We went to dinner at a friend’s house and found ourselves in our old neighborhood in Queens Village. We drove by our old house (pictured above) and it’s changed. There was a chain linked fence that that wasn’t there before and a new door.

We also passed by this little bodega we would go to a block away (pictured below). I remember my daughter wanting to be a big girl and walk to the store for milk for me by herself. After she kept begging for so long, I let her, but what she didn’t know was that I followed her. Seriously, it’s NY. I hid behind the trees and cars and watched her the whole way.

The neighborhood was changing when we lived there and I was feeling unsafe. I always felt like our block was in a protective bubble. There wasn’t any trouble on our block. My next door neighbor was a retired policeman.

A crack house popped up two doors down but was quickly closed. What were they thinking – operating a crack house next to a policeman’s home? I guess they would have liked to know that information before moving in.

I remember going to Jamaica Ave. (which was only 3 blocks away) for something one day and saw a lone prostitute walking the streets. I begged God to take me somewhere safer for my kids.

We knew we were moving to West Virginia at that time, but didn’t know the exact timing of the move. It wasn’t long before we moved. Our time in West Virginia was challenging for us. We learned a lot about the ministry there. We did have the opportunity to touch the lives and be touched by some awesome people. It was really great to see some of them on our way back to NY.

We live on Long Island now and our neighborhood is nice. The neighbors are friendly and the church is not very far away. I’m very excited about this new phase in our lives. It seems like we have come full circle. We are not the same people who left 16 years ago. We have grown and matured. At least I would like to think so.

We are reconnecting with friends we had 16 years ago and it feels like no time has passed when we get together. Tom and I are grateful for the wonderful church family we have now and are honored that God would choose us to be a part of their lives. We’ve only been here about 7 weeks, but it feels in so many ways we have been here all our lives. I guess you can go home again.

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting. We are never the same in our lives and walk with God...we are either going backward or moving forward. It is so wonderful that you and Tom are moving forward WITH the Lord leading.Susan

Wow I'm so happy to hear things are going well, And that you feel welcomed home. I'm looking at that house and it looks familiar....did you post an old pic of this one time on your blog?Looking forward to how God plans to unpack your luggage in this new phase of life! I'm sure it will have wonderful things in it!HugzDebz

It is so great that you are able to go back and reconnect with old friends after having been away so long. Interesting to hear about your old neighborhood in NY when your daughter was little...such a cute story!I was only in NYC once...you might remember my posting on it before- during Fleet Week '97 when my hubby was in the Navy. I and some other wives flew up to meet our husbands for a long weekend. So much fun to see everything I had only heard about and seen on TV! You might remember my story of going to the top of the WTC during that visit, too...so incredible that this Oregon girl got to experience that before it was too late. But because of what I heard about NY, I had been a little nervous, and was pleasantly surprised to see how clean it seemed and how friendly everyone was! (At least where we were and during that year.)

Anyway, I love how God continues to take you on a journey and in doing so brought you back home. Hugs,~Tammy

Sounds like you are both content in your new/old environment. Relax and enjoy and reminence. I still drive by the old houses we lived in when I was a child and I enjoy picturing the things we did and played and how life was back then. Mnay of the memories are sweet and fun but some are of course bitter sweet and those are part of our whole of who we have become as adults. Thanks for sharing your stories with us. I loaned my copy of your book to my sister, Brenda and we both enjoyed the story. I have got to get mine going again but life is pretty busy at the moment. It's still coming someday.

Fenced in front yards look so strange. I love going back to the neighbourhood I grew up in. My parents moved from there 8 years ago...I love remembering the memories and seeing how small and old all the houses in my neighbourhood were.

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